GIF to EXR Converter

Encoding: the GIF uses lossless LZW over a palette of at most 256 colours; EXR uses none, RLE, ZIP, PIZ, PXR24, B44 or DWA, chosen per file, and the download is a ZIP-compressed OpenEXR with 16-bit half-float channels, the 8-bit sRGB values converted to linear light.

Bit depth: 8 bits per pixel, as indexes into a palette in the GIF; EXR allows 16-bit half or 32-bit floating point per channel, and the EXR written here has 16-bit half float per channel.

Colour: an indexed palette of up to 256 colours per frame in the GIF; EXR supports scene-linear RGB, often ACEScg or linear Rec.709, written here as linear-light RGB.

Transparency: the GIF stores it as one palette entry marked transparent, so each pixel is either fully shown or fully hidden; the EXR keeps it as an A channel stored like any other channel.

Animation: image blocks with their own delay and disposal method, looped by the NETSCAPE2.0 extension; the EXR holds one image, so only the first frame is converted.

Metadata: the GIF can carry comment and application extension blocks, but no EXIF; EXR can carry named header attributes such as chromaticities, timecode and camera data, but nothing is copied across.

GIF is the classic animated image format. It is limited to 256 colours per frame and 1-bit transparency, so photos look grainy and files are large, but it plays everywhere.

A GIF starts with 'GIF89a' (or the older 87a), a logical screen descriptor and an optional global colour table, then image blocks, each preceded by a graphic control extension that sets its delay and transparent colour.

GIF files usually come from reaction clips, memes, old websites and screen recordings.

OpenEXR is the high dynamic range format of film visual effects. It stores half or full floating-point channels in linear light, plus any extra render passes, and is the working format of compositing pipelines.

An EXR starts with the magic number 76 2F 31 01 and a version field, then a header of named, typed attributes (channels, compression, dataWindow, displayWindow) and a table of offsets to scanline or tile blocks.

EXR is the better choice for visual effects, compositing and 3D render output, while GIF suits short animations and reactions that must play everywhere.

EXR strengths: True high dynamic range in linear light; Any number of channels and render passes; Lossless compression options. Drawbacks to weigh: Needs tone mapping to look right on a normal screen; Very large files; No browser or phone support.